1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sun visor vanity mirror lamp assembly, and more particularly to a vanity mirror lamp and lightpipe or light emitting diodes with a replaceable battery as a power source for illumination. This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/176,597, filed Jan. 18, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated in their entirety.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is common in the interior design of automobiles to incorporate sun visors for the driver and passenger riding in the front seat. The visors are mounted to the ceiling of a vehicle near the upper comers of a windshield by an arm and socket. The mobility of the socket and arm is limited to pivoting the visor down to block sunlight from entering into the vehicle from the windshield, or, to pivoting axially to prevent sunlight from entering the vehicle from the side window nearest the windshield.
For most of the visors in vehicles today, a vanity mirror has been added as an extra feature to the sun visor. For use of the mirror at night, lamps are mounted on each side of the mirror, and in some cases, a tuner can dim the lamps. By design, the lamps are normally illuminated when the visor is positioned for use of the mirror, and when the mirror guard is deployed upward, triggering the lamps to illuminate.
The method for installing a visor does not require more than inserting and mounting the arm and socket into the ceiling of the vehicle. However, by incorporating the lamps, wiring and a remote power source must be considered. The use of a remote power source increases the likelihood of connection problems during manufacturing resulting in a decrease in reliability during use. Also, if one of the lamps bums out and must be replaced, at least a portion of the visor must be disassembled so access can be gained for removal of the burned out lamp and replacement of a new one.
The aforementioned difficulties dealing with the installation and maintenance of vanity mirrors in overhead visors can be significantly eliminated and overcome by the present invention of a vanity mirror lamp assembly with a replaceable battery. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a visor assembly is provided that eliminates wiring from the installation process of the vehicle by utilizing a lightpipe powered by a local replaceable battery. These two advantages promote remote installation and maintenance by a consumer that is currently prohibited in the current assembly of vanity mirror visors.
The lightpipe is known in the art to split incoming light into a series of bands at the output based on the angle of the incoming light. When a beam of light reaches a boundary between two transparent things, three things can happen: all of it may pass through the boundary, all or some of it may bounce back off the boundary, and some may go through. The result depends on the angle at which the light meets the boundary.
The shallower the angle, the more the light will reflect (bounce) off the surface; the steeper the angle, the more light will pass through the boundary. When the angle is below a critical level, all the light reflects off the boundary.
The lightpipe assembly in the present invention is comprised of a lightpipe with a lens attached to each end. The visor assembly is comprised of a trim bezel tray, backplate, and lamp and mirror lid. The trim bezel tray has a battery holder and lamp socket embodiment molded as an integral part of the bezel. Molded sockets for intercepting the lens of the lightpipe are also inclusive to the tray. Access to the trim bezel tray is made possible by hingedly opening the trim bezel tray and backplate of the visor. Remote installation of the lightpipe assembly into the trim bezel tray is achieved by snap-fitting the lightpipe assembly into the lens sockets.
In another embodiment, a visor assembly is provided that includes a trim bezel tray having two molded sockets that each receive an illumination source, such as a light emitting diode. The trim bezel tray further includes a battery holder in communication with each illumination source via a pair of electrically conductive wires.
Various additional aspects and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, when read in light of the accompanying drawings.